Under the luminescence of sparkling chandeliers, ceilings covered with gold filigree and a profusion of glittering ornaments, Parisian music rooms provided a perfect backdrop for the indulgent and graceful music of French rococo composers. It was the age of Chardin, Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard whose paintings captured the luxurious lifestyles and frivolity of French society. The seeds of revolution had accumulated for quite some time in the City of Light and the facades of perfumed society were destined to crumble. Music was swept into the social and aesthetic tensions of Enlightenment era philosophes resulting in a profound shift in musical expression. Among the musical revolutionaries was François-André Danican Philidor, an innovative composer and chess master whose chromatic ‘decorations’ and experiments in modulation of tone color were wildly progressive for adherents of the old régime.

Throughout history, empires like Rome and Carthage had been built, conquered, lost and forgotten. Abandoned and left to descend into ruin, their great monuments fell victim to the ravages of war and the capricious nature of the human condition. In its own history, the viola da gamba offers a rare glimpse into the transient nature of musical fashion. As Europes’s empires waxed and waned, the instrument inspired a remarkable and diverse repertory spanning nearly three hundred years. Reaching every corner of Europe it played an important role in society and culture from the early Renaissance to the French revolution, yet was nearly forgotten just after its zenith at the end of the 18-century. Virtuosic, expressive and full of pyrotechnics, the music of late Baroque masters is a tribute to the versatility of an archaic but legendary instrument.

In 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach sent a beautiful presentation manuscript of Six Concertos to Berlin dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. Bach’s gift, now famously known as the Brandenburg Concertos, was given with the hope of gaining favor and possible employment in the Margrave’s court. Bach probably never received an acknowledgment of his gift and there is no evidence the concertos were ever performed in Berlin. After the Margrave’s death in 1734, Bach’s concertos were bundled along with 177 other pieces identified as “concertos by various masters” and remained undiscovered until 1849. Although Bach’s name is absent, an inventory of the Margrave’s music library lists many important composers of the time: Vivaldi, Valentini, Brescianello and Albinoni. Known as the Brandenburg Archive, this collection of music provides fascinating insight into the taste and traditions of Christian Ludwig and his court orchestra at the Berlin City Palace.